EMQ » July–September 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 4
Every Believer, Every Platform, Every Nation: Unleashing an Army of the Whole House through Marketplace Ministry
By Ferdinand Nweke
All American Publishers, 2022
218 pages
US$19.99
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Reviewed byDaniel Topf (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary), missions coach with World Team in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Ferdinand Nweke is a medical doctor from Nigeria who has authored several books and serves as the Coordinator of Eternity Ministries. His key message in this current volume “is that every believer has an opportunity to be ‘wasted’ on Jesus – from whatever platform He has given them – in the marketplace, on the church pulpit or in a rural mission field” (104).
Nweke has a passion to see the Great Commission fulfilled, but he believes that the current structures in place are insufficient to accomplish this momentous task. There is too much of an emphasis on full-time ministers, on ordained clergy, on great men of God with a particular anointing. As an alternative, Every Believer, Every Platform, Every Nation envisions a vast army of committed Christ-followers who share and demonstrate the gospel wherever God has placed them. The idea is that all Christians are called to be salt and light, which is something that needs to happen primarily outside the four walls of the church, thereby overcoming a false dichotomy between the sacred and the secular realm.
The author advocates for believers to be involved in all sectors of society, including the home, education, arts and entertainment, business, and government. Nweke’s vision is that “miracles will be unleashed as Christian doctors, IT and media professionals, nurses, mechanics, lawyers, technologists, and craftsmen study, pray, fast and seek the power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit” (62). The book does not elaborate in detail how this might be accomplished or what being a witness in the marketplace can look like in concrete terms, but for that, Nweke points the reader to one of his previous publications, entitled Marketplace Ministry.
Every Believer, Every Platform, Every Nation includes insights and stories from the author’s African context while also addressing more global missiological themes like Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPGs), poverty in the 10/40 window, Discovery Bible Studies (DBS), Church Planting Movements (CPM), and Disciple Making Movements (DMM). The book features two appendices; one presents a detailed Bible study on Joshua and Nehemiah to highlight the principle of multiplication, and the second appendix is an outline on “how to catalyze disciple making movements from every platform” (171). The structure of this volume is a bit confusing, considering that its first nine chapters are organized into eight parts. Consequently, most parts consist of only one chapter, making it unclear why the division into parts was made in the first place. Nonetheless, Nweke has written a stimulating book filled with profound biblical insights. He is unapologetically evangelical in his urgent plea to proclaim the gospel to the unreached and radically inclusive in applying the priesthood of all believers to the context of global missions. Church members will be motivated by this book to get engaged, and mission leaders will be challenged to embrace new approaches in their work, specifically with regard to embracing marketplace ministries as a strategic approach to reach the unreached.
For Further Reading
Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work by Timothy Keller (Penguin Books, 2016).
Marketplace Ministry: Using Your Platform in the Workplace to Transform Individuals, Cities, and Nations by Ferdinand Nweke (Available at https://courses.eternityministries.org/store/).
Missions Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missional Professionals by Larry W. Sharp (Hendrickson Publishers, 2022).
EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 4. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
